I focus almost exclusively on PvP, whether solo, small gang, or large bloc warfare. In the past, I've been a miner, mission runner, and faction warfare jockey. I'm particularly interested in helping high-sec players get into 0.0 combat.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

I did not intend on writing or
using this blog as a vehicle for personally attacking anyone, no matter how
much their writing marks them as unintelligible fools without the capacity for
rational thought.It’s a pledge I intend
on keeping.To that end, I will not make
any comments about how a person identifies himself as a cretin unworthy of the
title “writer”.

Perhaps the author doesn’t
realize that only those who make their living fanning the flames of racial
unrest make comparisons to chattel slavery.It’s a degrading comparison any time it’s made, it insults an entire
group of people (Americans, not just African-Americans), and it is a mark of an
intellectually bankrupt argument.Only
those who have been defeated by logic, evidence, and experience make such
claims.It’s possible he wasn’t aware of
this.

Secondly, his “evidence” is
circumstantial at best, and built around a narrative that he chooses to believe
as a member – and donor – of Test Alliance.Do you know why alliances were asked to leave the CFC?Failcascades resulting in ½ of the
corporations leaving, changing the nature of the alliance.Failure to show up for CFC operations despite
wanting and receiving spoils from prior campaigns.Basically, not pulling their own weight.

No one can deny that Goonswarm
is the first among equals.Why is
this?Is it because they’ve tricked
everyone else into believing their equals while they’re being flogged?No.It’s because the Something Awful forum and culture was one that
established a number of strong personalities, personalities who were
well-suited to coalition-building.Yes,
without Goons, the CFC wouldn’t exist.They built it, they established a “coalition of equals” concept and
proved the functionality over the course of years.

Note that bit…. proved the
functionality.The CFC exists because
Goons said they would treat everyone as equals
and…they…lived…that…promise.The
alliances of the CFC handle their own internal affairs.They can go to war as they see fit, provided
it’s not a blue (which they’ve all consensually set blue).They can establish any internal policies they
wish.All that is required is that they
provide pilots for coalition wars.

Why do they do this?Is The Mittani some sort of Svengali who is
manipulating his allies?Of course
not.They do it for two reasons, and two
reasons alone.The first is fights.The CFC alliances are PvP alliances, and they
want to kill people.The Mittani
provides this, as well as the logistics that make sov warfare happen.Goons offer coordination of diverse
alliances, and do it well.With the CFC,
you gain victory because of coordination and organization.That’s what they provide, in addition to
their own pilots.

The second reason is territory,
including moons.When wars end, the
spoils are divided based on the participation.Alliances that contributed pilots, operations, and logistics are
rewarded, and those who did not perform are not.In this sense, spoils are divided based on
merit and worth.

That is not slavery.That’s a confederation attitude.The Mittani gets his kicks leading this
effort, but the CFC alliances follow him because he delivers on all his
promises.If he started being a space
tyrant, his allies would stop showing up and his power would evaporate.The true skill of The Mittani is that he is
keenly aware of this.Fidelity keeps the
CFC together.

But Gevlon brings historical
precedents into the argument, so let me give you a more apt comparison.The CFC is the thirteen US colonies at the
implementation of the Constitution in 1789.A multitude of states gathering together for common cause, defense, and
profit.Yes, some states are more
important (Virginia, New York, South Carolina, Massachusetts) and others less
so (North Carolina, Georgia, New Jersey).I’d say Goonswarm is Virginia – populous, powerful, and wealthy,
providing many statesman.But Razor is
Massachusetts, a state boasting a proud history and strong foundation. And FA is South Carolina.On occasion, the union might lose a Georgia
(who never participated in the second Continental Congress that drafted the Declaration
of Independence), but those states who show up and remain – at their core – the
same alliance are always welcome.

Test would be Canada – they
opted out of the union and never bought into the “alliance of the willing”
model.The difference is that while
Canada was saved during the Revolution by Benedict Arnold taking a bullet at
the Battle of Quebec, Test had no such good fortune.

But this lengthy response
already does more service than an argument that resorts to racial imagery deserves.Nor should the Test Alliance that performed
so nobly at 6VDT deserve such a ranting travesty of agirprop as racial demagoguery as appeared in that post. They performed honorably, hardly deserving the insult of being referenced in such a shameful post.

Monday, July 29, 2013

The official stats (?!?) aren’t
in, but I’m sure this is the largest battle Eve Online has ever seen.It included bomb runs and welps.Fleets fighting to the death (kudos, Tribe),
panicked efforts at escape, and doomed remnants taking down a final
target.It showcased all the things Eve
is about.

I wasn’t there.My wife and kids take priority on the
weekends, and I couldn’t log in until it was all over.But I was watching Dotlan and saw the
killmails start to pour in.I was
gnashing my teeth at missing it.

But I’m not going to rehash a
battle I didn’t see first-hand.Even if
I did, I would have experienced only one piece of it.The whole report can be found here.

The point of this article is
character.

Looking at the CFC preparation for
the battle (Goonswarm towered every single moon in the system ahead of time to
deny Test a safe POS, for instance), it would have been easy for Test to stand
down and save their resources for another time.Their ship replacement program is behind, they’ve had to resort to donations
to keep it going, and their finances are tapped out after about seven months of
constant warfare.Trolling aside, the
smart – and completely understandable – move would have been to stand down and
wait until their allies could come help them with defense of another timer.

But Test wanted the fights, and
their allies stood by them.

I had planned to write an article
about this battle talking about how Test’s donation drive depended on one fatal
flaw in their logic: that their pilots had other choices for continuing to
fight the CFC – other corps or alliances they could join – and wouldn’t sacrifice
all for Test.I expected their numbers
to be anemic.I’m not sure how their
numbers compared to turnout earlier in the war, but that doesn’t really matter.My pre-planned narrative changed completely when
they brought their full might into this battle.

They were sending a message. They
should have stood down.It was a fight
that didn’t need to happen in the long view.But they wanted to send a message that, while they recognized they were
outnumbered in pilots, they refused to have their will broken.

You can’t control how often you
fall down.It’s whether you stand up
that matters most.And Test showed that
they were willing to keep standing up, keep fighting as best they could. Their performance is proof of their character.

As a Razor pilot, I’m bound by a
policy of no talking in local chat. It’s
a policy meant to prevent us from burning any bridges with alliances or players
who we might deal with in the future.It’s
meant to demonstrate our professionalism.We aren’t trying to embarrass or shame anyone.We’re playing the game with established mechanics.We jump in, murder you (or get murdered) drop
a “gf” in local, and leave. Business. But I do compliment pilots who perform exceptionally
well, either in character or skill.

I’ve seen a lot of tears, and a
lot of bad behavior from Test pilots in local.Smack-talking and insults abound.From their local chat, you’d think they were a bunch of children smashing
their keyboards when they lose ships.

That image is entirely erased after
yesterday.Clearly, Test may lose this
war, but their will may never be broken.

And to prove the point, they killed an Avatar that wandered
too close to a POS shield. WTF, buddy?I was four jumps away in a Wolf when the ping
for a rescue fleet went out, and you were dead by the time I landed on the 6VDT
gate. You could have bought two Titans
for that fit, and you went down so fast that the officer mods clearly didn’t help.

Friday, July 26, 2013

You’ve been flying all night with only an empty industrial
and an afk noob ship on your killboard.What started as an inaugural solo roam to try out your new Vagabond has
turned into a boring slog through endless empty null-sec systems.

Having gone through most of Syndicate, you’re starting to get
tired of watching that wormhole animation on screen.Every time that vortex forms, you hope you’ll
find someone – but not too many targets! – on the other side.

The screen’s starting to blur now, and you’re just about back
to low-sec.Maybe you can find someone heading through the null-low gate.

Loading grid, you see another neutral in system and
start to perk up a little.A quick dscan
shows nothing, but the other gate is 21 au away.Considering for a moment, you click the
button and warp to 30 on the gate.Overheated, you can pull a 28 km point range, and you’re in a Vaga… it'd be easy
to burn to the gate if necessary.

Within 13 au, you hit your dscan again, but don’t see
anything.Curious.There is a station in system… maybe he’s
docked?Switching overview tabs, you check
for bubbles and probes.One mobile warp
disruption bubble on scan.And you found
out too late.

When you land, you’re unlucky and are deep in the
bubble.But the grid is empty, so you
start to burn towards the gate and hit your MWD.Just then, a Manticore decloaks and scrams
you.Then local starts to fill up as you
see the gate fire from the corner of your screen.

Anyone who has PvPed has
experienced that moment when the proverbial feces is in flight, and the fan
isn’t far away.This moment, the moment
after engagement, is the most important moment during a fight itself.It’s the point when the most critical
mistakes are made.It’s the point when
an experienced pilot has a huge advantage over a newbie.

Sure, analysis was needed to fit
your ship just as you wanted, and knowledge normally helps you decide which
fights to take and which to avoid.But
all the knowledge in the world can’t prepare you for the adrenaline surge the
first time you find yourself in an actual fight.Your fingers will actually shake.The blood pumping in your veins will make
your vision blur a little.You can tell
yourself, “It’s just Internet pixels…” all you want before-hand, but it won’t
help.

The first time, some people will
freeze up and not know what to do.Some
will instinctively burn back to the gate or to where they warped from.Some will start shooting wildly at whatever
is closest.But the veteran will quickly
assess the situation – or at least the parts that immediately affect your fate
for the next few seconds – and implement the knowledge they’ve gained.Let me give you two examples, one good, one
bad.

Two years ago, I was in Imperial
Legion back when they lived in Geminate.I jumped into a system in my Drake and found a Curse sitting on
gate.I immediately engaged, thinking,
“missiles hit every time, I can take him down easily.”Within 30 seconds, I was capped out – I was
MWDing towards him, after all – and all my active hardeners shut off.His drones made quick work of me as I
desperately willed my scourge missiles to take him down before I died.

I didn’t think to switch to
Caldari Navy scourge missiles and try hit the drones.I didn’t realize my active tank was
particularly susceptible to a few cycles of a Curse’s neuts. I shouldn’t have
taken the fight.Having taken it, I
should have realized that drones were the Curse’s sole weapon.Instead, I watched helplessly as he whittled
away my shields, armor, and structure, then moved in to scoop my wreck as my
pod warped out.

Fast forward to last week.I wanted to make some safe spots at our new
staging station in 4-EP12 in Fountain.Looking at my hangar, I passed over my Wolf and Jaguar.Normally, I’d go with a frigate, and I only
fly T2 frigs.But I checked the stats,
and my Vagabond was only 200 m/s slower than my assault frigs, had a neut, and
220mm guns.If I ran into trouble, I’d
be better off with the Vaga than the AFs.

When I landed on the first gate
I intended to make a scout point off, I landed in a bubble with about ten
hostiles.A Stiletto was right beside me
and immediately scrammed me.Carefully,
I aligned back to the station and immediately applied my neut to him.I pointed him anyways (why not, right?) and
activated my 220’s in case I got lucky with a shot.For a while, nothing happened.Then my neut dried out his cap and he ground
to a halt.Only now did I launch my
Hobgoblins – I held them in reserve because I knew they couldn’t keep up while
he had his MWD on and I wanted to be able to apply damage immediately.He started to pull range without his MWD, but
my drones only had to hit three times before he was dead.Freed from his scram, I recalled my drones
and warped out before his friends could reach him.

The difference in my
performance?Two years of PvP experience
gave me the foundation that let me survive.Last week, I could have dropped my drones immediately, forcing them to
travel much further before they could apply their damage – perhaps far enough
that the other hostiles could reach me before I could kill my tackler.I could have opted for one of the AFs,
denying me my most powerful weapon: the neut.I could have simply frozen or burned in some random direction instead of
aligning out to a safe.The adrenaline
was still pumping, but in those two years, I’d learned to manage it better.

That’s why you’ll constantly
hear that the best way to learn PvP is to try it.You’ll lose ships – sometimes a lot of ships
– but it all pays off in the end.If you
want risk-free practice, load up the Singularity server and try a few ships and
tactics out with a corp-mate.There’s a
reason all alliance in ATXI do it.It’s
time well spent.

But get in a ship and try
it.That’s the only way you’ll ever
learn to survive the moment after engagement.

An interesting development in
the PvP world today… R O G U E Alliance, an ally of Razor ,
has decided to leave Cobalt Edge, ostensibly handing sov to N3 and
PL.

I find this very interesting as
an outside observer.On the one hand,
ROGUE is fighting with the CFC in Fountain, and they are blue to Razor as
well.On the other hand, handing sov to
NC. seems like sleeping with the enemy.It’s possible that some isk changed hands, but I’m intrigued by another
possibility.

In this article,
it’s suggested that ROGUE is interested in full CFC membership. Despite reports, the CFC treats all member
alliances well.The component alliances
are treated well and all share in the spoils of any conflicts.It wouldn’t do for any alliance to be
relegated to Cobalt Edge for very long.When I’ve flown with ROGUE, they’ve seemed pretty competent.I think they’d make fine allies to anyone who
wants them.And after this war in
Fountain, it’s very likely that the CFC will end up with a lot of prime real
estate.Too much, I suspect, for the
current alliances to handle.

You see where I’m going with
this?

An inventive mind can conjure
up all sorts of scenarios.Goons moving
into Fountain (and the front lines, likely) and handing Deklein to Fweddit and
ROGUE, perhaps?Pushing further into
Delve, maybe, and handing over further spoils?One thing is certain.The
Fountain War is likely to be nly the opening campaign in a much larger
effort.I don’t see the CFC forgiving or
forgetting those who have helped Test – even though their best move was to help
Test.

As a Razor pilot, I’m doubly
interested in what happens in Cobalt Edge and Oasa (note: I’m not on the troika
or a director, so I have exactly zero inside knowledge into the political
decisions Razor makes).I’ve long
bemoaned the lack of juicy targets in close proximity to our stomping
grounds.I longed for the Fountain War
to last all summer so I could milk it for kills, but I’d be just as happy
deploying anywhere that has targets.

I think we’re starting to see
some of the next dominos to fall.This
should be a great summer for PvP, and I highly encourage anyone interested in
it to join a bloc – any bloc! – now.

While null sec gets most of the press on TheMittani.com and
Eve News 24, CCP knows full well that most characters in New Eden spend their
time exclusively in high-sec.Now, many
of these characters are market, trader, hauler, and mission alts of null-sec
players, and these characters will likely never leave the protective womb of
CONCORD.Yet there are thousands of
players who were turned off by the risk factor of null-sec.

Greedy Goblin makes a good distinction between two types of players,
competitive and objective-oriented.I
refer to them as experience and achievement players, but the dichotomy is
pretty much the same.I’d hazard a guess
that most high-sec mission-running players are achievement-focused.Calling them carebears and leaving it at that
is a great disservice both to them and to null-sec players.After all, someone has to fill and empty the
POS, run industry, etc.If it’s not an
achievement player, it’ll have to be an experience player, and the latter would
much rather spend their time killing folks.

One of the CCP’s objectives with the Retribution expansion
was to make PvP more accessible to the larger Eve populace, namely these achievement
players.And it worked like a charm,
drawing a whole new set of players into PvP.It’s easier to try something new when you only have to risk a lose a
Stabber than a Vagabond.Rebalancing the
T1 ships made them viable again, and lowered the cost of entry across the
board.

Then Odyssey came, and with it came moon goo roulette.The CFC, Test, N3, and pretty much everyone
else lost their minds as they did the region shuffle.Wars were pandemic (see what I did there?),
supercapitals were welped, fleets of AHACs and Rokhs were wiped out.In Fountain, the CFC and Test Bros adjusted
their fleet comps to counter their opponents…

I suspect this development is a problem for CCP.A while back, they revealed some stats about
player wallets, indicating that players were earning more isk, but were
hoarding it rather than spending it.I
know I’m also building a cushion in case something catastrophic happens to my
hangar.What that *something* is eludes
me, but I’m clearly not the only one doing it.After Retribution, most of my hangar shifted from T2 to T1.It simply doesn’t make sense to risk 3x the
isk when I go solo roaming when I can get more fights – and ones I can win, at
that – with the T1 variants.

Alliances, on the other hand, have been nerfed significantly
by the Odyssey moon goo changes.Ship
replacement programs are in significant jeopardy now.Two alliances have asked for donations from
their members (donations!).The CFC
switched to caracal and bomber doctrines.Test is fond of Talwars.I’ve
gone on several Tornado roams where Razor runs into T1 fleets.Normally, we decimate them, but when we don’t
it only takes a few Tornado losses to make the engagement isk-neutral or
unfavorable.I have to imagine this has
made some alliances (those interested in isk-efficiency) risk-adverse to using
their own shinies.From the way doctrines
have gotten less expensive, I’d have to guess that this has already started to
happen.

Why does this matter?Two reasons. First, I wonder how
long T1 frigates will interest null-sec players, and even low-sec players for
that matter.I doubt a group like
Goonswarm will be discouraged (they’re famous for grinding structures for weeks
and months on end), but is that true of everyone?You can only spend so many days killing
Caracals or Talwars before you start to burn out and yearn for the sexier
kills.My heart skips a beat when I kill
a T3, an Armageddon, or a carrier because of the value of the kill.

And it’s definitely true that Eve matters because the losses
are significant.A 250 mil ship loss
hurts a lot more than a 40 mil one does.When I engage some hapless pilot with my Cynabal, my heart starts
pumping and the adrenaline kicks in.By
the end of the fight, my hands are shaking – even if I’m only killing a
hauler.It’s not the fight itself, but
the possibilities… it could be a Battle Badger with a cyno and I could lose my
pretty little slug.A gate camp could be
waiting on the other side.When I’m
flying a Stabber?Meh, I just don’t care
that much.

Faction warfare is already a good refuge for players who
want constant, cheap PvP.And
Retribution provided a huge shot in the arm for faction warfare.It’s great, if it’s your sort of thing.But the changes to moon goo in Odyssey have
already undercut the high-risk PvP that draws a lot of people to null-sec.

And that brings me to my other concern.CCP has a vested interest in providing the
drug we’re all addicted to.When an
Asakai, Burn Jita, or a large wormhole fight happens and billions of isk is
destroyed, some portion of that will end up being replenished with PLEX.Granted, ship replacement and wormhole loot
will replenish most of it, but not everyone is as patient as that, and some folks
need isk immediately (especially after a Burn Jita when mission runners need to
replace their expensive ships before they can earn more isk – that event wasn’t
all about jump freighters!).When the
thousands of engagements happening every day turn from 250 mil Cynabals to 40
mil Stabbers, CCP loses.Fewer players
feel they need their ratting alts, so they unsubscribe.Fewer players suffer huge losses, so they
stop buying PLEX.And – to some extent –
fewer players get the same thrill from killing T1 throwaway ships and Bittervet
Syndrome becomes more prevalent.

I want CCP to make money, particularly in ways that players can
opt into and which don’t generate a pay-to-win situation, like PLEX.The more money CCP makes, the more developers
they can hire and the more advertising they can do to thwart player
bleed.I’m curious which has a larger
effect on the total amount of isk lost in the game: the increase in the number
of ships lost or the decrease in the individual value of those lost ships.I’m sure CCP is watching PLEX sales and isk
loss very carefully, and I suspect the T2 rebalances – and iterations of it - will
reflect those discoveries.

One further side note: there’s a lot of talk about CCP doing
away with moon goo as a passive income source.I sincerely hope they don’t, because all it’ll do is eliminate most ship
replacement programs and encourage null-sec alliances to further down-shift
their doctrines.I shudder to think of a
null populated by slap-fights in ships that can literally be replaced by the
hundreds.A much better option would be
to help better distribute those moons – both by smoothing out the distribution
and introducing some advantage for living near the moons you own (which could mean
reducing the cargo size of silos, perhaps?

I like an Eve that has low, mid, and high value PvP available
to us pilots.

I had considered writing an “about me” post to inaugurate
this new blog, but I certainly wouldn’t read such a post from someone
else.When I started reading Eve blogs,
I was looking for tips to help improve my PvP, not learn about
personalities.I found Jester’s Trek,
Poetic Discourse, and The Altruist, great blogs filled with tips I used to
improve my flying.Each expansion
changes the rules and the “way” to fly, so we need a continuous stream of
articles to help coach the younger players.Those who have knowledge need to pass it on, particularly in Eve.Hopefully, those of you who choose to comment
will correct me where I’m wrong.This
blog’s goal is to serve as a resource to encourage and help new folks
interested in PvP, null-sec, and low-sec combat.

But what does that mean, PvP?

The term gets thrown around quite a bit as the other half of
the spectrum with PvE, but there are many types of PvP, and they each impart a
very different skill-sets.In ascending
order of skill (in my opinion) are:

Bloc Warfare: I’m confident that
any high-sec mission runner has the skill to join a null-sec alliance and
PvP during major wars.Also known
as “blobs”, these fleets consist of 70-80% DPS ships whose job consists of
finding a target the FC calls primary, locking it, and pressing F1.The more advanced among these folks know
how to align and broadcast for reps when taking damage.Whether you survive or die is more due
to the strategies of the various commanders than anything you yourself do.

Gate Camps: Sitting on a gate in a
high-traffic area, these gangs, usually of between 10-20 people, attack
anyone who jumps through the gate.In null-sec, they usually have at least one interdictor-class ship,
but all gate camps have several fast-tacklers (ships with warp scramblers
and MWDs) and scouts in the nearby systems to identify targets and
threats.Gate camps are a good way
to learn the capabilities of your ship – or various ships – and dip your
toe in a diversified fleet.Usually, comms discipline is casual enough that you can ask
questions, and the chances of dying are very, very low if your fleet is
properly scouted.However, you’re
not going to have balanced or riveting fights.

High-Sec Warfare: Some
corporations exist solely to declare war on alliances with thousands of
members and trawl the corridors near trade hubs, looking for easy
kills.This form of PvP requires
more skill than gate camps, since you may need to find your targets, but
you still will have complete control over the circumstances, so you are
very unlikely to lose your ship.This PvP is akin to U-boats attacking an unarmed convoy.You will get juicy kills, but won’t face
any danger.

Low-sec Gang Pirating: As low-sec
PvP, you can be attacked at any time, and this carries inherent risk.At any time, you could run into enemy
gate camps or roamers and have to think on your feet.Cyno fields can bring reinforcements at
any time, too.However, as
predators, you will have space you frequently hunt and will know the
normal patterns in the flow of traffic and enemies you’ll face.You’ll still be in control of which
engagements you take and which you avoid.Individual pilots need to be much more aware and capable within
their ships, but these groups usually bring overwhelming force, so
occasional mistakes by one pilot don’t tend to cost them victory.

Faction Warfare: I almost put this
one sixth, after the next type of PvP.Some faction warfare is done in groups, but a lot of it is
solo.However, because of the mechanics,
getting “surprise” fights is somewhat difficult.Skill lies in knowing the capabilities
of your ship and the ships you consider engaging.If you know which fights to take and
which to pass up, you’ll do fine.Enemy reinforcements will be slow to arrive in FW sites, which
offer considerable protection.

Corp/Alliance Doctrine Roams:
Using fleet compositions that have been well-tested by your
corporation/alliance, you and your mates travel through either null or
low-sec and engage anyone you find.FCs, scouts, tacklers (including bubblers) and logistics (reppers)
require more skill than DPS pilots, but you do need to know the various
engagement ranges and strategies to use versus a wide host of
enemies.You also need to be
familiar with your role in the fleet and the protocol on fleet comms.

Black Ops (Blops) Gangs: Using a Black
Ops battleship and a number of recon scouts, these gangs sit on the
bridging ship until the scout finds targets.The scout lights a cyno (usually a
covert cyno), and the rest of the gang bridges through the cyno to attack
the targets.The sneaky factor
(enemies see only one recon in system when they decide to engage) is
outweighed by limits on the types of ships that can travel through a black
ops bridge (bombers, T3s with the Covert Reconfiguation subsystem, cloaky
recons, black ops BSes).

Sniper Gangs: Consisting of
tier-three BCs – usually Torandos – fit with paper tanks to maximize
damage and speed, these gangs warp in on a group of targets, unleash their
alpha damage, then warp off before anyone can get close enough to tackle
them.Individual pilots need to
listen very closely to FC commands, keep aligned to the right location,
and follow primary targets.While
the individual pilot actions aren’t difficult, they do require quick
reactions.When a pilot makes a
mistake (normally not aligning off correctly), death usually follows.If the fleet gets into trouble, the
paper tanks on these ships usually crumple very quickly.

Small Gang Warfare: Whereas pirate
gangs tend to stay very close to home, I identify this group as traveling
to unfriendly/unfamiliar space.Without stations to dock in to repair or familiarity with the
traffic patterns in your roaming region, this form of PvP carries
additional inherent risks.Consisting
of between 3-10 players, these gangs require players to be very
comfortable with their ships and how to use them in PvP.An individual fleet member making a
mistake tends to result in lost kills or the death of the player or, in
some cases, the whole fleet.

Solo Roaming (Wink Wink): You’re
the only player in cold, cold space…. But you have another character
scouting or providing fleet boosts.Even though you have an advantage that others lack, you are limited
by having only one brain to split among multiple characters, and no one
else to back you up if you get into trouble.These players tend to have very
expensive implants, ships, Loki fleet boosts, and scouts to ensure they
have as much information and advantage as possible before heading into a
fight.However, they succeed or
fail based solely on their own skill.

Solo Roaming: Just like the
previous type of PvP, but without the advantage (*cough* cheating *cough)
of boosts.Solo roaming is the most
dangerous type of known-space PvP.Mistakes
in solo-roaming cost you your ship and probably your pod.You have to be very comfortable with the
moment after engagement and know how
to pick your battles very carefully.

Wormhole PvP: Perhaps the most
difficult and most nerve-wracking, wormhole PvP is for the best
PvPers.With no local channel, you
need to be aware of your surroundings at all times, understand the
capabilities of your ship, keep situational awareness, and adjust for the
modifiers in your wormhole system.Pilot skill and awareness are critical to your survival, and being
podded means you’ll be cloned in a known-space station and need to find
your way back to your wormhole again.Usually, the ships fielded are 1-billion-isk+ in value.

Each type of PvP requires a different set of skills.To varying degrees, you need patience,
knowledge, courage, judgment, serenity, luck, and risk-tolerance.When anyone refers to PvP, he’s invariably thinking
about one or two of these types exclusively.“That’s not real PvP…” is a common complaint made by one group against
another.

But they are all PvP, and I’d wager every pilot in the game
can enjoy at least one of them.No one
said you need to start with solo roaming.You probably wouldn’t succeed at it your first try anyways.I didn’t.I started with small gang, and was massacred mercilessly at first.A harsh education, to be sure, but one that
paid off very nicely in a good body of experience and knowledge about what NOT
to do.

That’s the point of this blog… to explore what PvP is, how
to do it well, understand why others do it well, and keep abreast on any news
items of interest to PvPers.It might
include all the things that support PvP – markets, manufacturing, logistics,
carebearing – but the focus is learning, appreciating, and studying the ways
you can harvest tears from your enemies.

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